China will take its time to carefully establish its moon base—the mission would likely get underway in 2030, with the launch of rocket carrying a 100-ton payload for the project. However, China will pay a visit to the moon in 2018, as it sends the Chang'e-4 lunar probe up to take a look around.

According to NASA, the Chang'e-4 Farside Lander will be a rover mission, whose launch will be preceded by a June 2018 launch of a communication relay satellite whose purpose would be to provide contact with the Chang'e-4 when it's working the far side of the moon.

The CNSA has also previously reported plans to send robotic missions to explore the lunar poles.

Additionally, China's first Mars probe is set to launch in 2020, the first of four deep space explorations missions, which while focused the exploration of Mars will also include asteroid probes and study of Jupiter, China Dailyreported.